Medtronic target Indian medical market

Manufacturer of cardiac stents and pacemakers, Medtronic, is stepping up its efforts in the Indian market.

Across emerging markets, India should be at least 25 per cent of potential business with roughly over a billion dollars worth of revenue coming from the country.

Yet India is currently under-performing, the result of either nonexistent or not aligned infrastructure.

Therefore, Medtronic is now using what it has learned over the past four years to align infrastructure, physicians and awareness, to ramp up its business.

Omar Ishrak, Global Chairman and CEO of Medtronic, said: “The issue is a matter of misaligned resources and lack of capability.

“If that is fixed, if India can reach its entitlement among people who can afford it, there is enough volume in that, which will automatically trigger the next level of prices as well as more infrastructures.”

Ishrak also wants to work with stakeholders to bring in a more coherent system in the country built around transparency, fairness and affordability for patients.

However, it has become easier for foreign medtech firms to manufacture in India after the government began allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the medical device sector.

This has concerned Ishrak, who believes encouraging manufacturing is not the right move for the country.

He said: “I think the problem in India that needs to get resolved first is helping to create a market.

“A lot of issues in India can be solved if we can get the volume the country deserves and right now that’s where we need to put our effort – in streamlining the referral chain, in helping with infrastructure rather than manufacturing products there because you have got to sell those.

“So I think although the move by the Indian government is a signal that the country is opening up to and welcoming external investment, I think the focus has to be much more steered toward market creation as opposed to manufacturing capacity.”